The phenomenon of the website Dear Photograph is simple. Find an old family photo and bring it back to its location of origin. Nostalgia comes naturally to fill in the caption information. Here, my grandmother (lovingly always known as Mommom), my great grandmother (Gram), left, and great aunt (Dotti), left, sit on the lawn of Old Main in the 40s. Though Mommom didn't go here, she lived with my grandfather (Pop) while he went to Penn State on the G.I. bill after being a meteorologist in the Navy. Something as simple as a past-to-present can really bring back a sense of family history. For me, as a Penn Stater, this justifies my being here. If my family was happy here, why wouldn't I be? It's a sense of connection. My mom didn't understand why I wanted to stay here this summer, but my grandma did. She had faith in Penn State and State College to be as good to me as it was to her.
Here, Mommom and Pop sit at Old Main again, presumably at his time of graduation (thats when the other photos were from).
Dear photograph brings a sense of connection to the person taking the photo, as well as the person viewing it. It instantly brings a then-and-now factor that can strike up a smile or choke back tears from even the most bland of viewers.
